Shaheen Bagh's Bilkis Dadi, Out To Support Farmers, Detained At Singhu

Shaheen Bagh's activist Bilkis Dadi was detained by police on Tuesday when she arrived on the Delhi-Haryana border to join the agitating farmers who are protesting against the new agricultural laws.

Bilkis, popularly known as the Shaheen Bagh Dadi, had expressed her willingness to join the farmers' protest at the Delhi-Haryana border at Singhu.

Bilkis Dadi, the octogenarian who was the face of the months-long anti-citizenship law protest in the national capital, featured in Time magazine

Soon after she reached the border point to extend her support to the agitating farmers, she was stopped by Delhi Police on the border.

"She was stopped at the Singhu Border and was escorted by the police back to her home in southeast Delhi," a senior police officer said.

Bilkis shot into limelight last year during the months-long anti-citizenship law protest at Shaheen Bagh here and was also recognised by the American weekly Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2020 alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bollywood actor Ayushman Khurrana.

During the protest which began in December last year, the 82-year-old sat under a tent with hundreds of women and children, braving the extremely cold weather. She emerged as the face of the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens.

The protest at Shaheen Bagh ended in March this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Today is the sixth consecutive day of farmers protest. Earlier on Monday, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar had invited leaders of farmer unions to hold talks today regarding the "anti-farmer laws".

(With PTI Inputs)